Tools

Simship Work-Back Schedule Planner

Type Planner

Topic Production Planning

Published 28 May 2026

Updated 13 October 2026

Enter your release date and the platforms you're shipping on. The calculator works backwards and gives you the key milestone dates for your production calendar.

Then plan the launch itself with the Launch Week Planning Helper. Console certification and store submissions are part of my Platform & Release Management service.

Target Release Date Drives every date

The date your game goes live on all selected platforms simultaneously. Every milestone below is calculated backwards from here.

Platforms

Select every platform included in the simship. Each adds its own cert pipeline to the schedule.

PC / Steam Nintendo Switch PlayStation Xbox

External QA

If you're using an external QA house, their window needs to sit before your cert build.

No Yes

Localization

How many languages you're shipping. More languages means an earlier loc delivery, since final text and LQA must be integrated before content lock.

Your Work-Back Schedule

Pick a target release date to generate your work-back schedule.

The timeline charts are optimised for desktop. Open this tool on a larger screen to see the Build and Store Gantt charts.

← Back to Resources Launch Week Planning Helper →

Hi, I'm Michele (or Miki for short).

Mapping out your launch? If you want someone who's run these timelines before, let's talk.

Get in touch

Notes

Cert timelines are estimates, not slots. The dates above assume a full submission cycle across three cert rounds: roughly 4 to 6 weeks total for Nintendo, 3 to 4 weeks for PlayStation, 2 to 3 weeks for Xbox, including bug-fix time between rounds. A single cert check is far shorter; these ranges account for the whole iterate-and-resubmit loop. Actual timelines vary based on queue depth, build complexity, and how many iterations your submission requires. Treat these dates as a planning baseline, not a confirmed calendar.
First submissions rarely pass, so plan for three rounds. The schedule above lists three cert submissions per console: an initial submission with a full cert-check window, working days to fix bugs, a second submission, then a short final re-check before go-live. A submission that passes on the first attempt is the exception, especially on Nintendo. Treat a first-pass approval as a bonus, not a plan.
Always verify directly with your platform contacts. Nintendo queue times in particular fluctuate significantly. Confirm your submission window via your developer portal or account manager before committing milestone dates to a publisher or investor. The same applies to holiday periods: both Nintendo and Sony have historically paused cert review in late December, but dates change year to year.
Store and build are separate tracks, with one exception. On Steam, Xbox and PlayStation the coming-soon store page can go live before the build is even submitted. On Nintendo Switch it cannot: the eShop page can only be submitted after the build passes lot check, and it needs at least 10 working days of review, so the Switch build approval is pulled that far ahead of launch. On every platform the store page must carry a final price and release date and time before it will be accepted for launch. Miss that and the product will not be visible or pre-orderable, even if the build passed.
The driving platform sets your content lock. When shipping on multiple platforms simultaneously, the platform with the longest cert pipeline (almost always Nintendo Switch) determines your content lock date for the entire project. If you add a platform late, recalculate the whole schedule from the new driving milestone.
Estimation only. This calculator gives you a planning framework, not a production guarantee. Real schedules depend on build stability, team capacity, first-party feedback cycles, and factors outside your control. Use it to structure your thinking and stress-test your timeline, not as a substitute for working with an experienced producer.